Customer Reviews

A Changed Man CD

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There's a lot of good stuff in this book. You already know the plot by now if you've read the other reviews -- skinhead decides to change his life and walks into the foundation offices of a Holocaust survivor. It's an interesting premise, and Prose does, I think, a good job with some of her characters. I really bought Bonnie as a single mom, particularly her relationship with her kids. I also found Meyer to be a great character, very conflicted about his own motivations.

What I didn't find so compelling: the ending was pretty contrived, in a way that tried to be too meta- about being contrived. I also was not really clear about Vincent's motivations until pretty far into the book.

On the other hand, let's face it, I've read a lot of "summer reading" crap this year and it's miles better than that stuff. So it's worth a look.

What if a skinhead shows up at a famed Holocaust survivor's office, not with a gun, but with contrition? What if said Holocaust survivor's prematurely dowdy, divorced assistant takes in the skinhead to hide him from the Aryan Resistance Movement he now says he wants to discredit? What if their story is told from close to each of their ambiguous human hearts? You have Francine Prose's new novel A CHANGED MAN, that's what.

Vincent Nolan is the repentant skinhead, a good-looking (despite the tattoos) young man in his early thirties, fresh from camping on his cousin Ray's couch. Meyer Maslow, the celebrated, aging activist who directs a non-profit aimed at freeing dissidents and righting wrongs all over the world, has been expecting someone like him, all the more reason for Bonnie, his adoring assistant, to marvel at his prescience. Bonnie has channeled her feelings of rejection from the breakup of her marriage into intense belief in the rightness of Maslow's mission.

When Meyer suggests that Vincent stay with her --- after all, he can't go back to his neo-Nazi cousin's couch, can he? --- she agrees with only a shiver of concern for her two young teenaged sons. Vincent talks a good game, and Bonnie wants to trust him, but she's a worrier by nature. She doesn't need the aggravation and feels guilty about it. And by that time, the reader knows that Vincent's duffel contains more in the way of dirty laundry than simply clothes: it also has a hefty supply of Vicodin, and $1,500 of drug money taken from Ray and his buddies.

There are two main sources of tension in this accomplished novel by the prolific Ms. Prose. One comes from wondering whether Vincent really is a changed man, and Vincent, it seems, is as much in suspense as we are. The other comes from the author's convincing revelations of each character's hopes, fears, self-doubts and petty vanities. While she visits nearly all of the main characters' heads, she does so one at a time, and thoroughly evokes their distinct voices and thought patterns as they mentally skewer each other and themselves. The writing is crisp and witty. Here's Bonnie, on Maslow: "Meyer insists on having it all at once: history, God, and expensive clothes. He demands his right to wear Armani while using a mystical tale from Rabbi Nachman to make a point about former Soviet bloc politics or hunger in Rwanda."

The narrative builds to several interesting climaxes. Vincent turns out to have a flair for public speaking and becomes kind of a weird father figure to Bonnie's two boys. Bonnie and Vincent contend with the nature of their growing affection for each other and with Vincent's allergy to nuts. Maslow wrestles with his own ambition and his jealousy of the younger man. The ending is satisfying without being sentimental.

Not a book about fairy tale transformations, A CHANGED MAN examines each character's capacity and motivation for doing the right thing, and the sometimes tenuous moral reasoning they use to figure out just what that is.

--- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

When I first read the premise for this novel, I hardly thought it was creative, (I have seen American History X), but decided to give it a chance anyway. Prose's writing is so unbelievable that I could hardly finish the first few chapters. She has no knowledge of what a thirty-something male ex-skinhead might be thinking, and it shows. Her use of slang is awkward and difficult to read, as are the passages of Vincent "looks too much like McVeigh" Nolan checking out Bonnie's "ass." This novel is forced and it screams it. Read something else.

In "A Changed Man" Prose succeeds in doing what every writer hopes in how she takes you into a foreign place and gives you a glimpse of life from another viewpoint. Her book is at once both optimistic and pessimistic: she shows a neonazi who seems to change for the better and a world known Holocaust survivor who has made a tidy living off of his fame who seems to care little for those closest to him.

I can't quite put my finger on it but her writing is kind of `in a hurry.' Not stripped and raw like a Hemmingway novel but more jerky and always moving, like you're always running. The technique works well, though, to keep the story moving, and to keep you in the middle of the confusion surrounding the protagonist. And confusion is in the middle of most of the story: confusion about motive, about relationships, and about telling yourself the truth. In the end, like a made for TV movie, the confusion falls away and everyone finds their place in the world. It's a bit formulaic but works. Ironically I don't really think anyone in the book `changed.' Certainly not the protagonist. His foray into the Aryan Nation was mostly a trade for breakfast and a place to sleep. None of the other characters change, either, except that they all seemed to come a bit more to grips with their innate wants.

Still, it's an excellent read that I really enjoyed.

This is the first book of Francine Prose's that I've read; I heard her interviewed on NPR after it was released and decided to read it based on that. I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. First, it was about a hundred pages too long, and a little healthy editing would have improved it. Second, the plot is extremely predictable. I could see what was going to happen almost from the first page. Third, the characters are fairly two dimensional, although I think that may have been deliberate on the part of the author. But my biggest beef with the book is that the main character, Vincent, our so-called "changed man", really doesn't change much. He's described in reviews as a skinhead, neo-Nazi. We then learn that he's basically only gone along with his cousin and his racist friends because he needed a place to stay and a job. Similarly, his "conversion" appears to be more a matter of convenience, a way to get another job and place to stay, than an actual change of heart. How can you stop being a neo-Nazi if you never really believed in their views to begin with? There were a few times while I was reading the book that I thought Vincent was actually scamming his new friends at the World Brotherhood Watch, and would turn out to be, in fact, the leader of the ARM of which he claimed to be a member. I'm afraid it would have made for a more interesting story had that been the case. As a sidenote, I found the Meyer Maslow character, founder of the WBW and Holocaust survivor, to be a thoroughly unlikeable character. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't help me enjoy the book much.

I sold the book the weekend afte my book club discussed it. It was horrible. I have never read a book where I couldn't identify or believe the narrator. But, that is what happened here. The "insight" that the narrator provided on the characters was trite and did nothing to help me like or even care about them. What I thought would be an insightful book about a "changed man" was a poorly written, unbelievable romance story with unlikeable characters.

I checked this book out after hearing raves about it in different venues, and I was not disappointed. Although it reads like a page-turner, it is filled with deep insights that kept me thinking long after I set the book down. I found myself reading rather quickly, and every once in while I would realize that I needed to savor what the author just said a bit more. Every character is well-rounded, even though some of them only get a little bit of time, and not every problem is neatly resolved by the end. Plus, the way the protagonist agonizes over her every move in her head was just hilarious. Definitely recommended.

When I read the concept of the novel, it sounded like an interesting read to me. But, after reading it, Prose's work left me with little emotion for the characters who (in my opinion) lacked depth.

From a self-claimed Neo-Nazi to a Jewish Holocaust survivor, the male characters do not seem to change, in my opinion, but rather stay dormant and stuck in their attitudes and life.

On one hand, we have Vincent Nolan (a Timothy McVeigh look-alike), who professes to be using the "World Brotherhood Watch" organization to help "save guys from becoming guys like me". He literally uses the premise of the organization to help him survive...they feed him, clothe him, etc. He is in need of a place to live, has no funds to find a place, and decides on a plan, whereby he convinces Maslow that he is trying to do good. He in turn gives Meyer Maslow (the founder and head of the organization, and a Holocaust survivor) the boost that is needed to help promote the organization, and to promote his latest book (which is not selling well). Nolan becomes the poster boy for Maslow's foundation.

Maslow convinces Maslow's assistant, Bonnie, to take Nolan in and give him a roof over his head. Bonnie has two children, and her family is rather dysfunctional. Maslow, himself, contorts the fact that he convinced Bonnie to take Nolan in, by stating to himself (over and over again), and to others, that Bonnie volunteered to take him in.

Maslow is using his Holocaust survivor experience to earn a living, literally, in my opinion. He is not really using the organization to help those in need, but uses any opportunity to promote his own image...that of being a man of honor, trust and a man who is trying to save the world, a person at a time. In actuality, he is extremely superficial, and is using the organization he founded to create himself as a figure of ethics and good values. He even questions his own motives for doing what he does, wondering if it is for the right reason. At one point he claims that material things do not matter to him, because he has experienced the worst of life without them, yet he is married, lives in a mansion, and dresses in Aramani suits (proudly). Nothing but the best for him.

One might assume that this novel is loosely based on Elie Wiesel, but, I see no similarities there, other than the fact that Wiesel survived the Holocaust.

For me, A Changed Man, could have been written with more in-depth characters, and characters of substance. The book had a lot of prose, but no depth.

Is it just me or are too many critics overthinking this book? It's an enjoyable and interesting story involving a number of memorable characters. Vincent Nolan is a screwed up guy who decided he doesn't want to hang with a bunch of skinhead white supremacists, so he steals his cousin's truck, some cash and pain pills and looks for a new life.

Why not go to an anti-hate organization run by a Holocaust survivor by the name of Meyer Maslow? Perhaps they will hire him to convince other screwed up guys with little prospects to avoid hate and white supremacist movements. Once he reaches the office, he is warily brought into the group but Mr. Maslow asks his fundraiser Bonnie, a divorced mother of two boys to live in an extra room in her house.

From there, it's not all that unusual. We see the stress of having the family host Vincent. We see the challenges the organization faces in using Vincent for their aims and the eventual attempt at revenge by the group he left behind. We also see the interpersonal stresses and angst that plays out among all the characters.

It's some of the characters and their observations that make this book worthwhile reading. The relationship between Vincent, Bonnie and her children made the book a winner for me. Along the way the raises a number of questions that will keep you thinking while you are reading and after you finish. Can you actually change a man's feelings of hate or do people take on those feelings when pressured and just dump them when it's convenient? Another interesting issue is the pressure of raising money for a good cause. If it is a good cause how far are you willing to go to sell the cause for more money?

In summary, this isn't a must have book that will change your life. The plot is a little thin and predictable but the characters are likeable. Still, it's well-written and worth your time and might cause you to think about some of the issues that are touched on in the book.

"A Changed Man" is the sixth Francine Prose novel I've read, and although I obviously like the author alot (otherwise, why read six of her books?), I can't say that this was one of my favorites. The "point" of the book seems to be what was drummed into us students in my tenth grade English class after reading Kafka's "The Metamorphosis": people have capacity for change (or redemption), but perhaps it's the ones surrounded and/or touched by the main character (who has undergone the most obvious or visible transformation), who have changed even more profoundly. Here, our main character (Vincent), while not changing as dramatically as Samsa did in "The Metamorphosis", converts from a wayward neo-nazi to someone who works for an Eli Weisel type Holocaust survivor (Meyer Maslow); although the author deliberately (I think) keeps us guessing about Vincent's true motivations most of the way. With Meyer's encouragement, Vincent is taken in by his assistant, Bonnie Kalen, a divorced mom of two boys (stereotypically plain looking and apprehensive but ready to blossom into -- well, you know the drill) who develops feelings towards Vincent, made stranger by the fact that her first husband was perfect by all superficial appearances -- a handsome Jewish doctor, but in reality unfaithful and self-centered. Another prominent character, the pot-smoking fearful Danny (Bonnie's 16 year old son) at first understandly distrusts his new housemate, but guess what? Danny changes (metamorphosizes) too due to Vincent's influence!

There are some very good things about "A Changed Man." First, as any Francine Prose fan knows, she's a superb writer who, while sometimes off-the-mark in her observations, can also be remarkably astute. I particularly found exceptional her portrayal of the sorrow that divorce can cause a family, especially the children. Second, the potential hypocrisy that often arises when the leader of a charity must self-promote in order to fundraise, is perceptively described. Third, Prose never fails to do her research, whether it be describing the effects of an allergic reaction to peanuts, or the tattoos of a neo-nazi. However, to be frank, I found the story, as a whole, unconvincing and a bit boring, and hope that Francine Prose's next novel is better.